6 Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the role of online sport consumer s motivations and concerns on their actual behaviors and how it affects future purchase intentions. Based on the SMOS model, five types of motivation (i.e., convenience, information, diversion, socialization and economic) and four types of concerns (i.e., security and privacy, delivery, product quality, and customer service) were examined to understand their influence on actual behavior and on future behavioral intentions. Data were collected through an survey with a return of nine hundred and forty responses (N = 940). A two-step structural equation model was conducted and the results showed that the strongest motivation for buying sport products or services is economic, while the concern product quality was considered less preponderant for the online consumption. The results also indicated that the importance of purchase s frequency supersedes the importance of the purchase s amount spent. Keywords: Actual Behavior; Concerns; Consumption; E-consumer; Future Intentions; Future Research; Internet; Motivations; Online Consumption; Sport; 6

11 Capitulo II - Artigo 1. Online sport consumption: Influence of consumers motivations and concerns on their actual behavior and future purchase intentions The changes in today's society due to the emergence of the Internet are remarkable. The paradigm is so different that the pre and post Internet expressions are currently used. It s amazing how fast the use of Internet has increased as a source of information, entertainment and commerce. The Internet has redefined the way people are informed, have fun in leisure time or do their shopping. Built on the Internet, the World Wide Web has developed very quickly, having the potential to touch the lives of every citizen in society, namely through business (Weber & Newberry, 2006). Over the recent past, the number of Internet users has significantly grown: 2 billion people are now connected to the Internet with a fast growth of 200 million each year (McKinsey Global Institute, 2011); 75% of Europe s population used the Internet at least once in 2013 (European Commission Eurostat, 2014). PORDATA (2014) indicates that 79% of Europe s population has access to Internet at home. People wish to be connected to the Internet to receive and send information all the time and companies have realized the potential to achieve both large and target audiences (Weber & Newberry, 2006). Over the last years, Internet has also revolutionized the way we work, communicate and even choose products and services. E-commerce has the ability to reduce transaction costs between firms and clients therefore, promoting markets. Searching through the Internet consumers could compare prices and features and gather information about the product they wish to buy, which they can order anytime and anywhere. According to Oxley and Yeung (2001) factors related to security in payment methods generally outweigh the factor of accessibility of information technologies. Despite some initial distrust barriers, e-commerce has gained special relevance in trade (Daniel, Wilson, & Myers, 2002). All industry sectors are exploiting the Internet as a way to sell products and services and to communicate with their consumers (Fenech & O Cass, 2001; Pitta & Flower, 2005). The world has been witnessing an annual increase of 31% in average revenues over the period and in addition, e-consumers are also growing (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD, 2012): 30% of OECD population is 11

12 actually purchasing goods and services in the Internet, for example, 64% of the United Kingdom (UK) population has carried out e-commerce-based transactions; regarding to e-commerce, in 2010 it has been estimated that global e-commerce would reach 711 billion dollars in sales by the end of the year with a growth rate of 19%. In Portugal, according to national source of official information, 61% of the population has access to Internet, 15% more than in 2008, and 13% of the population purchases online, representing a 20% growth, in average, since 2008 (INE, 2012). Understanding the behavior of the sport web s users, through the explanation of the general consumption behavior, can assist sport managers and marketers to develop better strategies to take advantage of the Internet as a valuable place for sport consumption. Professionals can use the knowledge of these studies to develop e-market exploitation strategies. Also, through deeper comprehension of the sport consumers motivation and concerns, they may even better promote their engagement in social media. To achieve this goal, it is important to conceptualize the psychological constructs which influence the decision of sport consumption in the Internet. Several studies have been conducted to understand consumers behavior in the Internet (Kim, Chung, & Lee, 2011; Korgaonkar & Wolin, 1999; Lee, 2002; Mahan III, Seo, Jordan, & Funk, 2014; Rohm & Swaminathan, 2004; Teo, Lim, & Lai, 1999). In this research line, Stewart, Aaron, Smith and Nicholson (2003) have emphasized the high importance of the systematization of the sport consumption behavior. Hur, Ko and Valacich (2007) proposed a scale of motivation for online sport consumption (SMOS) as a conceptual model of online sport consumption motivation and concerns when using the Internet for sport information and shopping. SMOS (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007) was the theoretical model from which we developed the empirical research in this study, to which we have added three new dimensions (i.e., money spent, amount of purchases and purchase intentions). The purpose of this study was to determine and examine the role of sport e- consumer s motivations and concerns on their actual behaviors and future behavioral intentions. Thus, this study provides a deeper insight about sport e-consumers behaviors, once it has been observed that the main motivation for buying on the Internet is economic, unlike the quality of the product that, among the different concerns, doesn t appear to be as important when consuming online sport products and services. 12

13 2. Framework 2.1. Online Sport Consumption Several authors have analyzed online sports consumption, for example Teo, Lim and Lai (1999) focused their study on both intrinsic (i.e. perceived enjoyment) and extrinsic (i.e. perceived usefulness) motivations for the use of the Internet. Their findings indicate that the Internet is: (1) mainly perceived as more useful to job tasks; (2) secondarily perceived as enjoyable and easy to use. Other authors (Brown, 2003; Caskey & Delpy, 1999; Delpy & Bosetti, 1998; Duncan & Campbell, 1999; Filo & Funk, 2005) have highlighted the importance of the sports fans motivations in the study of sports consumption. A sport fan motivation has been described as a self-determined and volitional state that energizes a desire to engage in sport goal directed behavior to acquire positive benefits (Funk, Beaton, & Alexandris, 2012, p. 364). In Deci s (1971, p. 44) perspective, motivations are either innate or learned and generate behaviors because of the satisfaction or enjoyment generated by the activities they re in. On the other hand, according to Bayton (1958, p. 282), drives, urges, wishes or desires may lead to describe motivation and explain the consumer behavior. Schiffman, Bednnall, Cowley, O Cass, Watson, and Kanuk (2001, p. 94) stated that a state of tension exists as a result of an unfulfilled need or want causing motivation. In fact, motivation can influence expectancies. Different motives may drive different consumer segments and different sport activities, as indicated by previous research about spectators (Funk, Mahony, & Ridinger, 2002). A Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) was developed by Pelletier, Fortier, Vallerand, Tuson, Briere and Biais (1995) and the authors concluded that sport behaviors can be divided in extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Kats and Aspden (1997) identified a set of variables that influences the use of Internet, namely: communicating by , finding information and staying up-to-date were found to be the most important reasons for using the Internet. A 12-item Web Motivation Inventory (WMI) created by Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) defined four primary online motivations: researching, communicating, surfing and shopping. In this line, academic studies have analyzed aspects of online sport fan behavior (Brown, 2003; Caskey & 13

14 Delpy, 1999; Delpy & Bosetti, 1998; Duncan & Campbell, 1999; Filo & Funk, 2005). Other findings (Delpy & Bosetti, 1998; Duncan & Campbell, 1999) have explained how to reach potential customers through an online marketing strategy and Brown (2003) concluded that there are incongruences between consumer-based interest factors and the virtual content. Korgaonkar and Wolin (1999) indicated that not only motivations but also concerns are significantly correlated with the number of hours per day spent on the web, the percentage of time spent on business versus personal purposes and the purchases made from a web business. Lee (2002) studied the Internet users behavioral factors when making an online purchase, indicating that e-commerce business should focus on employing logo assurance services, state-of-the-art security technology, provide an online customer-service center, establish warranties for sold products and services, maintain credit card payment facilities, and establish a policy for conflict resolution in the event of inaccurate billings. Aiming to examine which factors influence trust, satisfaction and loyalty, Kim, Chung, and Lee (2011) studied the effect of perceived trust on electronic commerce, concluding that navigation functionality and perceived security had a positive effect on trust. In fact, from a commercial institutional logic (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007), it is essential to understand some of the underlying motivations and concerns for the consumption of sport related products and services Scale of Motivation for Online Sport Consumption SMOS Model This model pretends to analyze the motivations and concerns of online sport consumer behavior and integrates two dimensions: motivations and concerns (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007) where a five-factor structure of online sport consumption motivation and a four-factor structure of online sport consumption concerns were proposed. 14

15 Motivation types The authors developed a five factor structure due to the previous research in this area, which we will individually describe below, namely: convenience, information, diversion, socialization and economic. Convenience. An increasing number of consumers has observed many benefits offered by electronic commerce (Yoon, 2002). Literature refers that several advantages of online shopping and convenience have been largely enhanced as one (Heung, 2003; Jensen, 2009; Kim & Kim, 2004; Kim, Ma, & Kim, 2006; Kolsaker, Lee-Kelley, & Choy, 2004; Mayr & Zins, 2009). In fact, the findings achieved by Amaro and Duarte (2014) indicate that convenience and time saving are important advantages to purchase online. According to Wu and Chang (2005), using Internet saves time and also reduces costs and negotiation time to the consumers. Yoon (2002) presented convenience as one of the attributes associated with online commerce that has changed the conceptualization of commercial transactions. Information. Virtual information involves posting information through Internet channels for others to see (Jelassi & Enderes, 2005). Organizations are using Internet as a way to marketer their products or services and to engage the clients through information (Fenech & O Cass, 2001; Pitta & Flower, 2005; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). The Internet provides a space where an organization can build an ideal relationship with the target-public offering information about their products or services and where consumers can benefit with free revealing information about a new product or service (Harhoff, Henkel, & Von Hippel, 2003). Sport managers haven t neglected the potential of information through digital environment to communicate with fans (Evans & Smith, 2004; Seo, Green, Ko, Lee, & Schenewark, 2007) making it possible to raise the public's opinions in a more expeditious way and understand how they can improve the organization. This includes posting questions, raising problems and offering solutions. Contact with manufacturers for the purpose of searching for professional opinions or even general sport information is another way of getting information through Internet. Information allows consumers to be updated and acquire more knowledge. For example, through shared information a community can develop collective knowledge which transcends individual knowledge, i.e. shared knowledge brings new knowledge. The WMI created by Rodgers and Sheldon (2002) included 15

16 information as one of the main motivation factors, which highlights its importance. Relevant information, according to the consumers wishes, helps the consumption-based decisions and gives more confidence in market relations (Kassim & Abdullah, 2008; Loiacono, Watson, & Goodhue, 2007; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Malhotra, 2005). Information about the firm, products or services, payment process, shipping service and other options are very important to build and reinforce consumers confidence. Diversion. Enjoyment has also been considered as one of the advantages of online purchases (Cho & Agrusa, 2006; Powley, Cobanoglu, & Cummings, 2004). To escape from boredom or stress daily life is undoubtedly another major factor driving the attachment to sport (Constantino, Matthew, Kate, & Francis, 2013). The Web has the possibility to combine both through several diversions available online. Fans could be involved in a number of entertainment activities such as: following general news about his favorite sport, playing online games, communicating with other sport fans on forums or social networks, watching online television or sport videos, etc. Socialization. Business communication with external stakeholders (such as costumers) involves a two-way online exchange space for information as well as different kinds of online channels (Jelassi & Enders, 2005). In order to socialize, individuals regularly seek for the computer and online platforms (Gross, Juvonen, & Gable, 2002; Kraut, Kiesler, Boneva, Cummings, Helgeson, & Crawford, 2002; Peter, Valkenburg, & Schouten, 2005). Chatting with friends through the Internet has increased social interactions and it has been replacing traditional means of communication such as the phone (Kraut et al., 2002; Walther, 1992). Online communities encourage interaction among website users, providing strong relationships even offline. Usually, in these relationships a common interest is shared (Pitta & Fowler, 2005; Zinkhan, Kwak, Morrison, & Peters, 2003) and gives people the opportunity to share personal experiences and opinions. This social capital develops a sense of belonging and a feeling of shared understanding, increases self-esteem and connection to a group (Acar, 2008; McKenna & Bargh, 1999; Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006). For sport organizations, social marketing in the sport environment is critical (Heere & James, 2007). As highlighted by Buhler and Nufer (2009), in order to work, sport organizations need to comprehend that a win-win relationship interaction is fundamental. Also, the interaction has been considered as an important matter in the 16

17 marketing process (Gronroos, 2004). Indeed, the efficiency of interaction with consumers has been facilitated by the advent of new technologies and platforms (Yadav & Varadarajan, 2005). Economic. Financial advantages, such as lower prices, have emerged as one of the major advantages of online shopping (Kim, & Kim, 2004; Kim, Kim, & Han, 2007; Kim, Ma, & Kim, 2006). So, for economic online transactions occur, trust is essential and this is a marketing tool that should be used by companies (McCole, 2002). E- commerce, in general, reduces transaction costs, defined as costs of exchanging information and incorporating decision processes (Bunduchi, 2005). The costs depend on coordinated efforts in the exchange between parties involved in the logistics services and procedures-related transaction activities (Pabinovich, Knemeyer, & Mayer, 2007). Consumers should search for the best deal through information and be able to monitor the process (Teo & Yu, 2005). Through online gambling we can find another economic motive of sport consumption. Online gambling is being seen by consumers as an opportunity to seek financial reward Concerns types The authors developed a four factor structure due to the previous research in this area, which we will separately address below, namely: security and privacy, delivery, product quality and customer service. Security and privacy. Virtual transaction allows real-time payments and online ordering without a physical intervention (Jelassi & Enders, 2005). Trust factors are so important that they can determine if an organization has success on selling products or services online, or not. The lack of interpersonal exchange makes this kind of transaction unique and forces the consumer to have a high level of trust in the organization. Website s features can have an impact on the final result, like effortlessness ordering and performance on the transaction-related processes (Novak, Hoffman, & Yung, 2000). On the e-commerce settings, privacy and security of personal information plays a crucial part (Gefen, Karahanna, & Straub, 2003; Mukherjee & Nath, 2003). The use of information privacy policy and seals of approval have been adopted by many websites because they re considered indicators of security by consumers (Bart, 17

18 Shankar, Sultan, & Urban, 2005). Consumers attend to several psychological barriers since the moment of decision to the purchase; the reduction of these barriers may contribute to a perceived control by the consumer (Nelson, Todd, & Wixom, 2005). Overall, such concerns (for instances, online financial transactions security and privacy constraints) are due to the fact that online shopping differs from traditional shopping. Delivery. Most of the times, delivery is the last link of the online shopping chain. Transportation and logistics have the responsibility to ensure the delivery on time at the required place and in good conditions. When referring to products, transportation turns in to a key factor. To ensure that the meeting with the final costumer becomes a positive experience, delivery has become more personalized over time. Nowadays, pre-alerts through phone contact between the delivery man and the consumer are often used. Virtual distribution also allows delivery of digital goods (Jelassi & Enders, 2005). As stated by Bitner (1992, p.62), the service setting can affect consumers emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses, which in turn influence their evaluations and behaviors and service organizations create value for their consumers through performances (Berry, Carbone, & Haeckel, 2002). This can be seen as the standard procedure and determines the importance of delivery for companies. Swinyard and Smith (2003) included the returning products bought online, shipping charges, hard-tounderstand ordering processes and use in the set of possible consumers concerns. Product quality. Perceived product quality refers to the evaluation provided by a consumer of the attributes of the product itself (Baker & Crompton, 2000). Online sporting goods represent tangible products that are tradable in the e-commerce. E- commerce presents different aspects when comparing with the traditional shopping, such as the inability to physically examine the product quality before purchase (Jarvenpaa & Todd, 1996). The primary motivation for the continuance of online products purchase is directly related to the satisfaction that the product achieved to its buyer (Oliver, 1980, 1981). Products will still be bought by satisfied consumers while unsatisfied consumers will stop buying through this channel. It is needed to ensure that the consumer is satisfied at the end of each online purchase and grant options whenever a bought product doesn t meet the consumer s expectations. Customer service. Experience can be defined as a subjective episode in the construction/transformation of the individual, with, however, an emphasis on the 18

19 emotions and senses lived during the immersion at the expense of the cognitive dimension (Caru & Cova, 2003, p. 273). In order to repeat the consumption experience, sport organizations must create primary strategies to achieve consumer satisfaction (Leeweun, Quick, & Daniel, 2002). Customers satisfaction can be defined as the gratification shown by consumers regarding the continuous fulfillment of their needs by the organization (Anderson, Rungtusanatham, & Schroeder, 1994). Customer service is considered one of the variables of the customer satisfaction, since it occurs before, during and even after purchase phase. Positive emotions increase customer satisfaction (Oliver, Rust, & Varki, 1997). When a consumer is satisfied since the first instant until the moment he buys an online product, it s more likely he repeats the process, keeping on buying. Positive costumer service is positively correlated with customer satisfaction (Theodorakis, Kambitsis, & Laios, 2001) Sport Consumer Behavior and Future Intentions A clear opportunity for sport-related marketers to effectively use the Internet as a fundamental base to build a marketing strategy is suggested by the popularity and growth of online sport consumption (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2011). It is crucial that sport organizations get a clear understanding of online sport fan behavior in order to increase the opportunities offered by the Internet. Several studies have highlighted the importance of understanding various aspects of online sport fan behavior (e.g., Brown, 2003; Caskey & Delpy, 1999; Delpy & Bosetti, 1998; Duncan & Campbell, 1999; Filo & Funk, 2005) and it is needed a profound comprehension and a systematic analysis of online sport consumer behavior. Sport behavior is referred in previous literature as a process that involves the individuals when they select, buy, use and have products and services related with sport to satisfy their needs (Funk, 2008). However, sport consumers have been showing a continuous changing on their behaviors, which imposes on the study of their behavior a higher degree of difficulty (Meir, 2000; Redden & Steiner, 2000; Shank, 2004; Westerbeek & Smith, 2003). Purchase intentions are referred as the consumer s conscious plan to make the effort to purchase a product (Spears & Singh, 2004). In this sense, purchase intentions 19

20 represent an indicator of a consumer s motivation to reveal a specific purchase behavior (Dees, Bennett, & Villegas, 2008) and so, they are vital to guide consumer s behavioral intentions (Ajzen, 1991). The comprehension of behavioral intention is important to the organizations success (Cronin, Brady, & Hult, 2000). Consumer purchase intention is the most useful indicator in predicting future sales (Crompton, 2004). Behavioral intention can represent positive or negative outcomes for a company (Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). Variables such as satisfaction, price perception (Jiang & Rosenbloom, 2005), service attributes (Divett, Crittenden, & Henderson, 2003; Hill & Green, 2000) and brand (Grace & O Cass, 2005) affect intention to repurchase in e- commerce reality. Moreover, a customer with a history of purchasing from an organization becomes loyal to this organization and doesn t search for other supplier (Oliver, 1999). In order to encourage future intentions to repurchase, it is necessary to build a long lasting relationship with costumers (McIlroy & Barnett, 2000). And as advocated by Su (2009), 70% of online consumers considers return policies before making purchase decisions. As we realized, online decision-making process includes not only the motivations and concerns of the individuals, but also the way these constructs affect future purchase intentions. In order to maximize organizations financial returns, a future purchase intention dimension is also required as part of a deeper analysis. The underlying idea of this study assumes that motivation and concerns would influence the consumers perception of using the Internet and further affect their future behavior intentions. The measures of the aforementioned studies help to illuminate the reasons why individuals and organizations use the Internet but fail to provide sport managers with any real assistance with outcomes of future purchase intentions. This study, based on the concepts of SMOS model (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007), proposed a new approach to reveal the role of consumers motivations and concerns on their actual behaviors (i.e., amount of purchases and money spent) and how they affect their future purchase intentions. 20

21 3. Data collection The sample consisted on addresses which were collected from friends, family and colleagues personal s that voluntarily provided them for this study. This non-probability convenient sample (Zikmund & Babin, 2012) received the survey by between the 7 th of October and 17 th of November of A total of 15,558 surveys were sent to these addresses. However, data were collected in two phases. On the first stage, 4,388 surveys were sent to conduct a pilot test, from which 199 responses were obtained. Data were analyzed to verify the internal consistency: the results of Alpha Cronbach were below.70 (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2005) for the constructs of Information (α = 0.632) and Product Quality (α = 0.671); the remaining Alpha Cronbach constructs were above.70. To evaluate the items closeness to normal distribution, their skewness and kurtosis values were examined; all skewness values were below 3.0 and all kurtosis results were above 7.0. On the second stage, the remaining addresses were sent. A total of 940 surveys was returned and used for data analysis, corresponding to an effective response rate of 6.04%. It is important to note that the use of mail surveys commonly allows the collection of large samples within a short period of time, but it may limit the representativeness of the sample. Ages of the respondents ranged from 17 to 70 years (M = years; 72.9% were from 17 to 47 years old and 27.1% were from 48 to 70 years old). From a total of 940 participants, 683 were males (72.7%) and 257 were females (27.3%). 4. Instrument In order to test and examine the different types of online sport consumers motivations and concerns, and how they affect their actual behavior and their future purchase intentions, a questionnaire based on the study developed by Hur, Ko and Valacich (2007) was the elected data collection method. Beyond the 31 items included in the SMOS (Hur, Ko & Valacich, 2007), 6 outcome questions were added (see Table 1) to comprehend what constructs examine the intentionality to money spent, amount of 21

22 purchases and future purchases. All items were measured utilizing a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7), except the Money Spent and Amount of Purchases constructs, in order to understand sample s opinion. For the construction of the survey, all questions were randomly placed. All SMOS items (Hur, Ko & Valacich, 2007) were translated to Portuguese and back-translated to English to ensure the accuracy between the original items and the necessary translated version (Banville, Desrosiers, & Genet-Volet, 2000). Table 1 Outcome Questions Construct Amount of Purchases Money Spent Purchase Intentions Outcome questions AP 1. Over the last 3 months, how many times have you purchased sport products/services through Internet? AP 2. Over the last year, how many times have you purchased sport products/services through Internet? MS 1. Over the last 3 months, what was the amount of money spent shopping online sport products/services? MS 2. Over the last year, what was the amount of money spent shopping online sport products/services? PI 1. Over the next 3 months, what are the odds of buying sport products/services online? PI 2. Over the next year, what are the odds of buying sport products/services online? 5. Data analysis Data were analyzed using AMOS (21.0) and a two-step structural equation model (SEM) was conducted to examine the relationships between motivations, concerns and the outcome variables (actual behaviors and behavioral intentions). The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) was estimated to evaluate convergent validity. Values greater than.50 were considered to evaluate convergent validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2005). The values of Alpha Cronbach coefficients above.70 criterion were considered to exhibit good reliability (Nunnally & Berstein, 1994). Discriminant validity was assumed when AVE of each construct was greater than the squared correlation between that construct and other constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The appropriateness of the data to both measurement and structural models was estimated through a variety of goodness-of-fit indices (GFIs). A good fit of the model was assumed when chi-squared (x 2 ) was not statistically significant (p>.05), the ration of x 2 to its degrees of freedom was less than 3.0 and comparative-of-fit-index (CFI) and GFI were larger than.90 (Hair et al., 2005). A root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) value less than.06 was indicative of good fit (Byrne, 2000). 22

23 6. Measurement model The results of CFA showed that the AVE of the items of the construct Information failed to exceed the.50 cut-off point (Hair et al., 2005) and for that reason was eliminated. Also, AVE values for Convenience, Economic Motives and Costumer service were lower than squared correlations these constructs indicating lack of discriminant validity. Based on this evidence, these three constructs were grouped into a single construct. Next, a scale refinement was conducted and this construct was named Economic Convenience to better reflect the item content. The final measurement model consisted of 29 items, representing Economic Convenience, Diversion, Socialization, Security & Privacy, Delivery, Product Quality, Amount of Purchases, Money Spent and Purchase Intentions. As exposed in Table 2, all items showed high factor loadings ranging from.61 to.93. This result indicates that each item did load significantly on its construct. The Cronbach s α values supported the construct reliability, ranging from.69 (Product Quality) and.91 (Purchase Intentions). Convergent validity was accepted for all constructs given the AVE values were all greater or close to the recommended standard of.50 (Fornell & Larker, 1981). The AVE average of all AVE was.64. Descriptive statistics for the constructs and its correlations are reported in Table 3. Product Quality had the highest mean score (M = 4.90; SD = 1.23) and Amount of Purchases had the lowest (M = 2.09; SD = 3.66). In addition, the results obtained in the final measurement model indicated an acceptable fit to the data [χ 2 (289) = ; p =.00; χ2df = 3.87; CFI =.94; TLI =.93; GFI =.91; RMSEA =.06; p(rmsea <= 0.05) =.005]. The χ 2 statistic was significant (p <.001) and its ratio to the degrees of freedom was above the usually acceptable range. Still, it is important to consider other indices once χ 2 statistic is sensitive to sample size (Hair et al., 2005) and this study was conducted with a large sample (n=940). CFI, TLI and GFI values meet the recommended criteria for good fit, while RMSEA was indicative of acceptable fit. Overall, the final measurement model showed an acceptable fit to the data and was within the required criteria for good psychometric properties. Consequently, the structural model (see Figure 1) was examined. 23

24 Table 2 Cronbach's alpha, indicator loadings, construct reliability and average variance extracted Factor (Cronback s α ) Economic Convenience Items Factor loadings Construct reliability Variance Extracted (AVE) EC 1. I enjoy the flexibility of shopping for sport-related products EC 2. The Internet makes it easier to do my purchase at my own pace while shopping for sport-related products..78 EC 3. Using the Internet makes it easier to shop for sport-related products..79 EC 4. Buying sport-related products or services online saves me money..71 EC 5. Purchasing sport-related products through the Internet is definitely worth the money..78 Diversion DIV 1. Using sport-related Websites excites me DIV 2. Using sport related Websites arouses my emotions and feelings..82 DIV 3. Using sport-related Websites provides an outlet for me to escape my daily routine..79 Socialization SOC 1. I like to chat with people about sports through the Internet SOC 2. I like to share my opinions about sport teams and players through the Internet..80 SOC 3. I enjoy debating sport-related issues on the Internet..71 Security & Privacy SP 1. I don t feel secure sending my information across the Internet SP 2. I am concerned that my personal/financial information might be shared with others without my consent..74 SP 3. I am uncomfortable giving my credit card number on the Internet..75 SP 4. I am concerned about the security of personal information on the Internet..86 Delivery DL 1. Internet buying has delivery problems DL 2. I cannot measure the delivery time or date..68 DL 3. I cannot track the whereabouts of the product that I bought..66 Product Quality PQ 1. I dislike the fact that buying online does not allow me to touch and feel the products before purchase PQ 2. It s hard to judge merchandise quality on the Internet..68 PQ 3. I am concerned about whether the product that I bought online is a fake..65 Amount of Purchases AP 1. Over the last 3 months, how many times have you purchased sport products/services through Internet? AP 2. Over the last year, how many times have you purchased sport products/services through Internet?.76 Money Spent MS 1. Over the last 3 months, what was the amount of money spent shopping online sport products/services? MS 2. Over the last year, what was the amount of money spent shopping online sport products/services?.90 Purchase Intentions PI 1. Over the next 3 months, what are the odds of buying sport products/services online? PI 2. Over the next year, what are the odds of buying sport products/services online?.91 24

26 Approximately 17% of the variance of Money Spent (R 2 =.17) was explained by all the constructs that support the model. Figure 1 - Estimated standardized direct effects with the significant relationships for the structural model 26

27 8. Discussion and implications/conclusions This research examined the relationships between motives, concerns and its influence on their actual amount of purchases, money spent and future purchase intentions. Due to the increasing online presence of sport organizations and the importance of such presence, the present paper aims to contribute to the comprehension of online sport consumers motivations and concerns and its influence on their actual behavior and future purchase intentions. The results of the factorial structure obtained for the measurement model indicated that some of them are distinct from previous studies (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007; Rust & Oliver, 1994; Woodruff, 1997). Economic Convenience is the motivation with the strongest predictor, suggesting that it is the primary motive when shopping online. In order to stimulate Economic Convenience it s important that client cards are created with associated discounts and client fidelity (Rodríguez, Crespo, & Sánchez, 2009), payment flexibilities availability, use of online shopping cars, use the option favorite items on the website or/and inform the client that his favorite item is back in stock or in promotion. This option also makes customers return and stimulates the construct Amount of Purchases. Economic Convenience has a direct positive effect on Money Spent but even higher on Amount of Purchases and Purchase Intentions, revealing its importance in the quantity of purchases made - and to buy in the near future - by consumers, meaning that the effect of Economic Convenience on Money Spent doesn t have a reflection on Purchase Intentions. The relationship between Purchase Intentions and Amount of Purchases and Money Spent reinforces the idea that the frequency of buying is more important than the amount spent in each purchase. Diversion has a low positive effect on the variances Amount of Purchases, Money Spent and Purchase Intentions. This effect might be related to the fact that who searches for Diversion, does not necessarily intend to spend money. For instance, consumers may search games on the Internet that are free from charges. As several authors pointed out the Internet is a prime source of entertainment (But, Nguyen, & Armitage, 2005; Karat, Karat, Vergo, Pinhanez, Riecken, & Cofino, 2002). In order to develop e-commerce, strategies should be designed to integrate fun along the shopping experience (Parsons, 2002). Moreover, this study confirmed that online sport consumers are motivated to seek Convenience and Diversion as the study s findings of Hur, Ko and Valacich (2007) highlighted. 27

28 Product Quality construct indicated a lack of discriminant validity. This result suggests that consumers don t give much importance to quality when it comes to online buying decisions, with negative direct effect on Amount of Purchases, Money Spent and Purchase Intentions. These results contradict the idea that quality influences satisfaction (Rust & Oliver, 1994; Woodruff, 1997). It also refutes that the major factor that influences online shopping is the inability to examine the product quality before purchase (Swinyard & Smith, 2003; Teo, 2002; Wee & Ramesh, 1999) and that online sport consumers have concerns about product quality (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007). This finding can be related to the perception of the product itself. For example, if it s a product from a well-known brand or a reliable Website it is inevitably associated to quality (Filo, Funk, & Hornby, 2009; Flavián, Guinalíu, & Gurrea, 2006; Hassanein & Head, 2007; Huang, 2005). On the contrary, it can be interpreted as a bad quality product. Although, it could also be due to the fact that the items of the construct don t specify a product, so the inquiries could interpret them in different ways. Another reason for this finding may be explained by the insufficient information about a product or the access to the information not being easy to obtain. This is particularly relevant in decision making process. In order to contradict this result, information in the form of product review is an option (Mudambi & Schuff, 2010) but it is also important to provide specific featuring about high quality products as well as proper information and guidance on the Website (Coyle & Thorson, 2001; Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Parsons, 2002), enhancing their qualities and proven results so that the price can be justified (Jiang & Rosenbloom, 2005). Another possible justification may be the fact that Portuguese online buyers mostly search for promotions or bargains which are often associated to poor quality. That is, anecdotal evidence from the Portuguese context suggests that websites selling cheap and low cost products are very searched and consulted by web users (Custo Justo, 2015; OLX, 2015) who valorize the quick and cheap instead of good and expensive when purchasing through Internet. Regarding the results of the original study (Hur, Ko, & Valacich, 2007), it was found that there were concerns concerning Security & Privacy and Delivery. Rather, in the present study, the results show that the private information is shared on the Internet precisely because consumers aren t worried about neither paying through Internet nor concerning about delivery issues. This may indicate that nowadays payment technologies are more secure due to the use of new technologies (Hariharan, Kumar, & Rochan, 2011), offering more confidence to consumers. Moreover, diversity of online payments may also have 28

29 helped. For delivery matters, online product tracking, from the company to the delivery point, enhances consumers confidence. In addition, our study makes a significant contribution to the sports literature and management by highlighting the importance of knowing the specific motivations and concerns to satisfy the needs of online sport consumers in order to influence the purchase and behavioral intentions. The refined scale in this research can provide sport managers, marketers and Website designers valuable tools to examine the markets and design websites more appropriately taking into account the motivations and concerns through the explanation for the general consumption behavior. The knowledge offered by this study could help professionals to develop new strategies around the e-commerce and create Internet as a valuable place for sport consumption. This questionnaire could be a useful tool for sport managers who wish to develop business on online sports field. 9. Limitations and future research Firstly, the online survey used to collect data may have been influenced by the sample composition. For example, few participants were female and the literature suggests that gender tend to influence consumption behaviors (Homburg & Giering, 2001). According to this subject, future surveys should collect samples more even in terms of gender to ensure a better comprehension of the consumer behavior through internet. Adding this, the collect of a representative sample of the online population will represent an important step to understand more accurately the future behaviors. Secondly, the data collection instrument was designed for general sports online consumption and not for a particular product, company or Website, lacking an objective criterion. Before a product of a well-known brand, e-consumers may reveal a greater propensity to spend. Perceived behavioral control reflects a person s perception on the ease or difficulty of implementing the behavior in question (Chiu, Lee, & Won, 2014). Therefore, in future research, this questionnaire could be applied to specific Websites, in order to reduce the subjective nature of the questions. Thirdly, the psychometric properties of Product Quality suggest the need of scale refinement in future research. The inclusion of additional items capturing consumers perception of the overall quality (Maeyer & Estelami, 2011; Noël & Hanna, 1996) may contribute to increase construct validity and better understand the role of product quality in predicting future behaviors. 29

30 Fourthly, the actual behaviors were measured based on the inquiries responses and may not be totally reliable. Fifthly, in future studies, data on records of online purchases by consumers should be obtained, since the responses of each individual can be conditioned by his own experience in studied context, that is, it should be ensured that respondents are regular customers of the online context. 30

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